Promoting the Underlying Principle of Acceptance: The Effectiveness of Sexual Orientation Employment Antidiscrimination Legislation

Abstract

Although previous research finds less perceived sexual orientation discrimination in areas with employment antidiscrimination legislation than in areas without such legislation, it remains unclear whether such findings hold for (a) quantitative hiring evaluations made by organizational decision makers and (b) privately held attitudes of prejudice. In a between-subjects design, human resource professionals in locales with or without sexual orientation antidiscrimination laws evaluated matched resumes of openly gay or presumably non-gay male applicants. Without antidiscrimination laws, gay applicants were rated as less hireable than non-gay applicants; with antidiscrimination laws, gay and non-gay applicants were rated equivalently. Further, antidiscrimination legislation was found to be related to decreased prejudice toward gay men, even after controlling for factors previously shown to impact community adoption of legislation (e.g., political and religious views). Analyses of hireability ratings lacked sufficient statistical power to discern this effect.

The Effects of Changing Anti‐Discrimination Legal Standards on the Evaluation of Older Workers

“…More recently, researchers have capitalized on the absence of national anti‐discrimination laws protecting gays/lesbians and heavy individuals, amid a patchwork of state and local legal protections barring sexual orientation and weight discrimination in some U.S. locales, but not others. Empirical studies, conducted in the U.S. and using correlational, quasi‐experimental, and experimental methodologies have documented the effects of state and local sexual orientation anti‐discrimination laws (Barron, , ; Barron & Hebl, ; Ragins & Cornwell, ), and the effects of state weight anti‐discrimination law (Roehling & Roehling, ) in improving individuals' attitudes toward protected groups.…”

“…In particular, the presence of the stereotype of older workers as resistant to change and incapable of adapting may account for widespread findings that older workers are considered less willing and able to benefit from training, relative to otherwise equivalent younger workers (Dedrick & Dobbins, ; Rupp, Vodanovich, & Crede, ). Previous research has indicated, however, that knowledge of laws that prohibit discrimination can improve the evaluation and treatment of members of protected groups (e.g., Barron, , ). Recently, however, the threshold for demonstrating age discrimination has been raised, which may allow age‐related stereotypes to influence personnel decisions regarding older workers.…”

Thriving of employees with disabilities: The roles of job self‐efficacy, inclusion, and team‐learning climate

“…There is some evidence legislative progress affects attitudes toward PWD (Barron, ). The introduction of new welfare and antidiscrimination laws has led many PWD previously living only under government subsidies to enter the workforce.…”

Fire All the Boomers: How Generational Labeling Legitimizes Age Discrimination

“…Barron (2010), for example, found that antidiscrimination legislation promoted more positive attitudes toward homosexuality (see also Barron & Hebl, 2010). More recent work extended this research to age discrimination and demonstrated that awareness of legislation protecting older workers predicted more favorable outcomes for those workers; likewise, awareness of court decisions reducing those protections (i.e., Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. [Biskupic, 2009]) predicted more negative attitudes toward older targets (Cox & Barron, 2012).…”